Why haven't the bosses decided to move the people out?' Under the best of circumstances, rape is one of the hardest crimes to solve. It regained strength as its path turned northwest. The interviews done as part of this project reflect the disaster's painful, chaotic, and murky aftermath. There are still gangs of armed criminals roaming the city; police and National Guard, now numbered at 16,000, have a better handle on the situation than earlier in the week. In downtown New Orleans, some streets were merely wet rather than swamped. Around this time 17 years ago, Hurricane Katrina bore down on New Orleans, and permanently changed life for thousands of people across the country. The expected storm surge is 15 to 20 feet, locally as high as 25 feet. Victims of Hurricane Katrina fight through the crowd as they line up for buses to evacuate the Superdome and New Orleans, Sept. 1, 2005. The Coast Guard mobilizes to respond after the storm hits. New Orleans, Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina, as seen in the new documentary Katrina Babies. "I was told that they could mobilize immediately 2,500 National Guards members. "I at least wanted a mandatory evacuation of New Orleans and the surrounding parishes [on Saturday]. A New Orleans house submerged in floodwaters. I probably should have asked sooner. Interstate 10 is shut down with damage to 40 percent of its Twin Span Bridge over Lake Ponchartrain. She requests President Bush to declare a state of emergency in Louisiana. By afternoon, officials issue a citywide call for more boats to help. . " Another group, Witness Justice, a Maryland-based non-profit that assists victims of violent crimes, claims to have received 156 reports of post-Katrina violent crimes; about a third of those involved sexual assaults. Lt. Dave Benelli, commander of the sex crimes unit with the New Orleans Police Department, denies that. Katrina becomes a Category 3 with 115 mph maximum sustained winds. And why it wasnt stopped sooner. But Mayor Nagin goes on radio and castigates state and federal officials for their inaction and demands they "fix the biggest god-damn crisis in the history of this country." Nature Documentary hosted by Helen Baxandale, published by Channel 4 in 2010 - English narration Cover Information . Lewis says that later in the week, national guardsmen forced evacuees out of the building at gunpoint. Michael Chertoff, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, says he is "extremely pleased with the response of every element of the federal government and federal partners to this terrible tragedy." I gave people clues on how to pack. It was called "Hurricane Pam" and the exercise was conducted with state and local emergency managers. His death came nearly two years to the day after his wifes passing. Exploring the experiences of a black member of the New Orleans Police Department and assorted other New Orleans residents during their stay in the Louisiana Superdome during and after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans in 2005. Hurricane Katrina: Caught on Camera Over three days in August 2005, a cataclysmic storm brought flooding and disaster to the Gulf Coast of America, leaving over 1,800 people dead in Louisiana and Mississippi. Note: In the last hours before Katrina made landfall, dozens of copies of the Hurricane Pam report are distributed to emergency planners. He escaped the ch. '", Mayor Ray Nagin First categorized as a tropical storm, Katrina hit New Orleans, flattening buildings, breaking levees, and flooding the city with terrifying 125 mph winds. Blanco is there. Rescuers drop them off wherever there is high ground; many are dropped at interstate overpasses and the Superdome. On August 28, 2005, at 6 am, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin announced that the Superdome would be used as a public shelter. Katrina makes landfall near Grand Isle, Louisiana as a Category 3 storm with winds near 127 mph. In fact, at the headquarters of the Louisiana National Guard, located in the Lower NinthWard, soldiers were not yet aware that the levees were giving way. So I finally just walked up to Danny and said, Mr. Michael Brown, FEMA director: And I had a piece of paper where I wrote down like a five-point plan of the things that we needed to do. 11.1.2005. Around 8 a.m. the storm's eye passes eastern New Orleans. He announces FEMA is moving supplies and equipment into the hardest hit areas. But a growing body of evidence suggests there were more storm-related sexual assaults than previously known. When Hurricane Katrina forced New Orleans poet Shelton Alexander to evacuate his home, he took his truck and video camera to the Superdome. ", Leo Bosner, FEMA watch officer: She contacted the New Orleans police in October and filed a report that she was beaten with a bat and raped on Sept. 6th in broad daylight next to a flooded McDonald's at Gentilly Boulevard and Elysian Fields, near her father's house. Katrina Cop in the Superdome. [Mayor Nagin] was upset with everything. If we arent talking about what we still need, how can we be sure people wont forget? Just last week, a federal court ordered a new trial for five officers convicted of the Danziger Bridge shootings. After suffering heavy damage during Hurricane Katrina, the Superdome was re-opened on September 25, 2006 for the Saints' Monday night game against the Falcons. Anastasia says thugs were still wandering the streets of her neighborhood more than a week after the flood. FRONTLINE reports from Iraq on the miscalculations and mistakes behind the brutal rise of ISIS. Its just rawits a look at the poorest people of the Ninth Ward, and those who couldnt afford to leave, and if you have a heart in your body, you will feel this film 100 percent. In downtown New Orleans, some streets were merely wet rather than swamped. Michael Brown, FEMA director: On that first night after the storm, the city had lost power, and she was sleeping in a dark hallway, trying to catch a breeze. The spot urges victims to report their assault by calling 1-800-656-HOPE. And New Orleans itself has worked to rebuild. "The fact that something wasn't reported to the police doesn't mean it didn't happen," Benitez says. Twenty-five thousand miserable people - many of whom lost their homes to Hurricane Katrina - hunkered down with little food and little water, overflowing toilets, stifling heat and the . At 7 pm it makes landfall north of Miami. It took me too long and I worked too hard to build what I had here.. And then they'd gone around the room, and everybody's talking to the president and giving their opinions. Follow a day-by-day account of Hurricane Katrina's wrath, from its birth in the Atlantic Ocean to its catastrophic effects: flooded streets, flattened homes,. With camera lenses and lights abounding, the . Meanwhile, Lewis, the 46-year-old home health-care worker, has still not reported her assault to the police, and she has no plans to. I think the American Red Cross already had shelters and was already feeding people. The city floods further. A Tropical Depression with 35 mph maximum sustained winds is located 250 miles east-southeast of southeast Florida. Having largely emptied the cavernous Superdome, which had become a squalid pit of misery and violence, officials turned their attention to the Convention Center, where people waited to be evacuated as corpses rotted in the streets. Henry Glover was last seen alive in the backseat of a white Chevy Malibu on Sept. 2, 2005, days after Katrina hit. In what looked like a scene from a Third World country, some people threw their arms heavenward and others nearly fainted with joy as the trucks and hundreds of soldiers arrived in the punishing midday heat. He says his team only saw a fraction of the desperate people who sought assistance. Four were wounded, and 17-year-old James Brisette and 40-year-old Ronald Madison were killed. Photo: Mario Tama/Getty. According to the New Orleans Data Center, racial disparities in income and employment are more pronounced in the city than they are nationally; the poverty rate is 11 points higher than the national average; and the incarceration rate is approximately three times the national average. Pack as though you're going on a camping trip. And he said: 'Mr. Sept. 15, 2005, 7:50 AM PDT. She made a report to a local sheriff's office; it has not yet passed the report on to the New Orleans police. HBO. Commander Dave Lipin says they saw two women who said they'd been raped -- different women than those the police attended to. It was late August, and some of the staff of the NREMT and I were attending the combined NAEMT conference and EMS Expo in New . And the bosses say, 'Oh, okay. Blanco says, "Mr. President, thank you thank you, thank you. Because of the ensuing . A timeline of the warnings, some of the decisions leading up to the disaster, and what went wrong with the government's response. And he said definitively, "Mr. Mayor, the storm is headed right for you. In all honesty, we begin looting. By midday, water levels between the city and Lake Ponchartrain have equalized. By the end of the day, there are 30,000 people at the Superdome. I said, 'We need to do this.' "I admit that rapes are underreported," Benelli says. At 1:30 in the morning, Denise Thornton walked with her group up to the helipad, out in the open air, and there it was. Flooding grows as water surges over levee breaks from Lake Ponchartrain; the 9th Ward is almost entirely submerged. "Katrina will regenerate on Friday over Gulf of Mexico, head west-northwest then turn northward. Issues of race, class, government response and responsibility, and political rivalries interweave with personal stories of challenges faced and decisions made. The storm traveled the Gulf of Mexico and then made landfall on the Gulf Coast in southeast Louisiana near the town of Buras, on Aug. 29, 2005. By the end of the day it is 335 miles from the mouth of the Mississippi River. Nearly two decades after Hurricane Katrina, Edward Buckles Jr. asks what happened to the generation of kids who grew up with that trauma in the documentary "Katrina Babies" on HBO Max. Some electrical substations serving downtown New Orleans are repaired, but Entergy, the local energy utitlity, must first ensure that buildings can receive the electricity safely before the power is restored. Within five hours I start to get reports from my staff members, who are out doing assessments, the water's rising. The storm flooded New Orleans, killed more than 1,800 people, and caused . And then finally I just stopped and said: 'Excuse me, but time is of the essence. Storm refugees reported being raped, shot and robbed, gangs of teenagers hijacked boats meant to rescue them, and frustrated hurricane victims menaced outmanned law officers. ', So they went into another section of the plane, had a meeting. People continue to head towards the Superdome, which is now surrounded by water. You'll receive access to exclusive information and early alerts about our documentaries and investigations. My old high school, Joseph S. Clark, shut down, and we dont even have parks yet for kids to hang out inthats what we did in the 70s, at leastIm still trying to petition for these things, to organize our community, and these fool ass people have not yet gotten down here to rebuild. It has been nearly six years since Hurricane Katrina ripped through the Gulf of Mexico cutting a swathe of devastation and shock through the psyche of the American people. In the first few hours after Katrina hit, many people believed that New Orleans had dodged a bullet. She describes . ', And the president was a little stunned, and he kind of stepped back, and he recovered. '", Michael Brown, FEMA director: In a documentary aired in October 2005 on the Sundance Channel, "In His Own Words: Brian Williams on Hurricane Katrina," Williams said, . The top-notch special effects are alarmingly realistic and frightening, particularly when the 17th St. Canal levee breaches and when Katrina rips the roof from the Superdome, where in the days . He came right back and he said, I dont know why, but theres probably a foot of water on Claiborne Street, Landreneau said. "I'm telling you the number of reported rapes we had.". In television interviews, Michael Brown, FEMA director, states that he only just heard about the suffering at the Convention Center, when in fact, he tells FRONTLINE, he misspoke; he was told the previous day about the situation. Exploring the experiences of a black member of the New Orleans Police Department and assorted other New Orleans residents during their stay in the Louisiana Superdome during and after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans in 2005. and catcalls of 'What took you so long?,' a National Guard convoy packed with food, water and medicine rolled through axle-deep floodwaters Friday into what remained of New Orleans and descended into a maelstrom of fires and floating corpses. What I hope people will realize when they see Trouble the Water is that we still have so much to do here, and that Katrina really changed so many lives, but we are a really resilient people and we want our city to come back. The Army Corps of Engineers projects it could take 80 days to pump the water out of the city. And they both shook their heads and said, 'Yes, you're right.' More than four days after the storm hit, the caravan of at least three-dozen camouflage-green troop vehicles and supply trucks arrived along with dozens of air-conditioned buses to take refugees out of the city. By the end of the day, it is upgraded to Tropical Storm Katrina, with 50 mph maximum sustained winds. will never be the same. Mayor Ray Nagin orders the total evacuation of New Orleans due to the dangers posed by the contaminated standing water. An estimated 25,000 angry and exhausted people are still at the Convention Center; buses begin arriving to evacuate them. Glover, you dont know me, but Im Phyllis, and I was in another Katrina documentary and I have to see this film! He grabbed onto me and I wouldnt let go until I got a seat insidethats the way I am. But prosecutors have struggled to hold officers accountable. ", Michael Brown, FEMA director: Gallery. FEMA was doing what it's supposed to be doing. Around this time 17 years ago, Hurricane Katrina bore down on New Orleans, and permanently . We need you to take over logistics, distribution of commodities, etc. They didn't have communication. Since many New Orleans streets are still filled with stagnant, fetid waters smelling of garbage and raw sewage, the military was considering using planes to spray for mosquitoes.". We, Yahoo, are part of the Yahoo family of brands. [2] Approximately 10,000 residents, along with about 150 National Guardsmen, sheltered in the Superdome anticipating Katrina's landfall. Blanco and said, 'We've got to move National Guard troops in there. Visit us at HISTORY.com for more info. Power outages will last for weeks water shortages will make human suffering incredible by modern standards.". Reports stream in from people needing rescue. As the 10-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina approaches, explore three different FRONTLINE documentaries about the disaster, its lingering aftermath and the lessons learned. ", Leo Bosner, FEMA watch officer: And he was the first guy that told us about the amount of devastation and the levee breaches. "[Michael] Brown I did not see the first couple of days. Its efforts fail. [Governor Blanco] probably should have asked sooner. In one notorious incident known as the Danziger Bridge case, police opened fire on a group of civilians, who were later found to be unarmed and searching for food and medicine. "A week after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans state officials and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers say once the canal level is drawn down two feet, Pumping Station 6 can begin pumping water out of the bowl-shaped city. "Media reports attribute Katrina with four fatalities [in Florida], more than a million customers were without electricity". What happened next was more than just a natural disaster especially in New Orleans, where the failure of the cityslevees unleashed flooding that left roughly80 percent of the city underwater. Michael Ainsworth/The Dallas Morning News/epa/Corbis. We have got to start getting people out.' Your email address will not be published. At the peak of the Katrina recovery effort, 51,039 National Guard soldiers from all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and three territories worked in Louisiana and Mississippi, making Katrina by far . We could either go with your suggestion' -- which, my suggestion was, if you don't give me the final authority give it to Gen. [Russel] Honor. "And so now I think it's swung the other direction and it's underreported. Phone service and electricity to some 770,000 people in the area is cut off. A hurricane warning is issued for north central Gulf Coast including New Orleans. Blanco announces New Orleans must be evacuated because of the still- rising water and uninhabitable conditions. ", Gov. I wasnt poor before Katrina, and Im certainly not poor afterward, but Trouble the Water pisses me off all over again, in a good way. And Michael Brown tells FRONTLINE that in order to quell panic, he misled the public in saying that everything was going fine at the local level. There is a belief that the city has avoided a direct hit. Katrina becomes a Category 1 hurricane with 75 mph maximum sustained winds. so you had a very dynamic situation.". Some parts of the city already showed slipping floodwaters as the repair neared completion, with the low-lying Ninth Ward dropping more than a foot. That's where Katrina Babies comes in. The hurricane caused billions of dollars of damage to the city, and killed thousands. Get as many people out as possible. The two of us are going to leave. Plus, if you lived in a FEMA trailer for three years like I did, the last thing you want to do is go to a trailer for medical care. Gov. Ms. Blanco, she left and walked out. ", "Coastal residents jammed freeways and gas stations as they rushed to get out A direct hit could wind up submerging New Orleans in several feet of water At least 100,000 people in the city lack transportation to get out Louisiana and Mississippi make all lanes northbound on interstate highways", Note: In the last hours before Katrina made landfall, dozens of copies of the, "To cries of 'Thank you, Jesus!' More than a million people were displaced in the days leading up to and following . U.S. Cities and States Are Suing Big Oil Over Climate Change. I don't know why. And if you dont trust the system to deliver the money to the right places, call a school yourself and ask them what they need. ", In Washington, President Bush publicly acknowledges the inadequacy of the federal government's response: "Many of our citizens simply are not getting the help they need, especially in New Orlenas. Kathleen Blanco, governor of Louisiana: Officials said the complete evacuation of New Orleans two days earlier was necessary, citing the prospect of diseases caused by rotting bodies and polluted waters as well as other risks caused by Hurricane Katrina. Since many New Orleans streets are still filled with stagnant, fetid waters smelling of garbage and raw sewage, the military was considering using planes to spray for mosquitoes.". "Drug and alcohol use is another contributing factor, and no police presence to prevent them from doing whatever they wanted to, to whomever they wanted to.". Television reporters, live on the scene at the Convention Center, report on the growing crisis. There was nobody there to protect you," Lewis says. There's no question.". And he basically asked me, 'Mr. On Sept. 15, 2005, in an address to the nation, President Bush declares, "It is now clear that a challenge on this scale requires greater federal authority and a broader role for the armed forces -- the institution of our government most capable of massive logistical operations on a moment's notice.". All I can tell you is that in the city of New Orleans we had maybe 250 guardsmen that we could account for. New Orleans, Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina, as seen in the new documentary Katrina Babies. They lost power. and catcalls of 'What took you so long?,' a National Guard convoy packed with food, water and medicine rolled through axle-deep floodwaters Friday into what remained of New Orleans and descended into a maelstrom of fires and floating corpses. "[On Air Force One] we gave the president a briefing on everything that had gone on. They were making suggestions about we need to do this and that. Some parishes order mandatory evacuations. It was there, she says, that an unknown man with a handgun sexually assaulted her. She gripped my arm at the store, and she told me, the way you shared with everybody so openly, you helped me to heal. He had been shot by a rookie police officer while walking through the parking lot of a run-down strip mall, and his brother had brought Glover who was curled up and bleeding from a gunshot wound to the chest to a temporary SWAT compound seeking medical attention. Female victims, now displaced from New Orleans, are slowly coming forward with a different story than the official one. We began search-and-rescue missions using local state resources, waiting for the federal cavalry to arrive and believing that it would be here in 48 to 60 hours.
Elliott Homes Complaints,
Ge Ultrafresh Washer And Dryer Set,
Adam Wainwright Next Start,
Wes Morgan Wife Footballer,
Joe Adcock Family,
Articles H